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The Top 10 Space-Based Science Fiction Series ever on TV (with Poll)

September 19th, 2009

There are a bunch of good lists concerning science fiction tv over on wiki. I tend to post a lot about movies, but this time I want to post about space-based science fiction series on tv. It always seems like there’s at least one decent one, and sometimes more than one. I’m going to take my own biased look and rank them — there aren’t that many, unfortunately. And I might skip over a few deserving contenders. I find it hard to compare things like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica with Red Dwarf, which is its own unique, cool thing and something different than a traditional space action show. I’m also ignoring Earth-based stories with aliens (e.g. Alien Nation, V) and those that don’t focus on ships in space (e.g., Stargate).

And I can’t put a great deal of emphasis on the science, as I usually do. Why not? Because essentially every tv series I’ve ever seen has pretty questionable science, although I will give bonus points to those that tend to do things right a little more often (e.g., the new Battlestar Galactica).

10. Star Trek: Enterprise. I’d really hoped this would be an attempt to reboot to a feel closer to the original series, with some swashbuckling and more aggressive attitudes characteristic of Kirk’s time, but no. It was really a revision of Rodenberry into the late Trek feel, that touchy-feely thing. Good at times, but inherently flawed I thought. I still think the intro song has the wrong feel.

9. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Cisco and various alien things masquerading as religion, the Middle East allegory, were both strong and weak points. I did enjoy the series more toward the end with the storyline involving the Dominion.

8. Star Trek: Voyager. First season really sucked, but the show hit its stride with the Borg and that super species. Oh, and 7 of 9 was the hot, wasn’t she?

7. Farscape. Very interesting visuals and aliens, as well as trying some innovative things (remember that cartoon episode?). I liked it.

6. Firefly. The weird world-building and its inconsistency (both in terms of the science and culture) make this rank as low as it is here. Joss Whedon does interesting ensemble casts and character interaction, which makes this a winning series. Not wild about the intro song here, either, as for Star Trek, but the feel does fit Firefly a lot better than Enterprise.

5. Blake’s 7. Now, I haven’t watched this since college, but I remember loving it sooooo much! Cheesy special effects, but interesting long-term character development.

4. Babylon 5. Like Trek, the first season sucked in my opinion. I had to be won back, but I was, mostly, for some very interesting science fiction. I think this series was special for handling long story arcs and developing them coherently, and it was a new way of watching episodic science fiction.

3. Star Trek: The Next Generation. The first season or two, like most Trek, kind of sucked. In the end, however, TNG crew became almost as iconic as the originals. The Borg episodes are classics. This series commercial from the first season is kind of weird to watch.

2. Battlestar Galactica (reboot). The series made what I thought were missteps, but there was a level of gritty realism and really cool stuff that I have to rank it close to the top. It was just way cool too much of the time, and interesting and complex, both in terms of story and moral ambiguity.

1. Star Trek (The Original Series). Too iconic, ground-breaking, inspiring to a generation of geeks and scientists (like me!), not to top the list.

Glad to see Lexx was in the running. I have a guess why it might have been excluded but why not mention Doctor Who? MST3K had a spaceship and lots of science. The Clone Wars series is worth four views to measure.

Doctor Who only rarely is space-based stuff, and can be pretty much anything anywhere and anywhen. Which is cool. Lexx I liked, but it was weird and hard to place sometimes. I did leave Quark off, for those who remember that one!

I was going to say Doctor Who but I agree with your analysis of that its anywhere & anytime. But TARDIS is awesome. I guess if you had gotten the list out little later you would have had to include Stargate Universe(it is going to space-based) which is coming out this October

Given the caveats, I almost understand putting in Star Trek: Enterprise over Stargate. Really though, I wouldn’t put in ST: E in any top ten list. It had exactly one good season (season 3), and that was only for its commentary on the political climate of the time. The first part of the first season was interesting with trying to get various pieces of Star Trek tech that we know and love, but otherwise mostly disappointing. And I still cannot forgive the ending.

Voyager was ok also. It basically had two really good episodes (both two-parters), some decent episodes, and a bunch of filler. I wouldn’t put the introduction of the borg/7 and 8472 as one of those (my choies: Year of Hell and Equinox). Otherwise, ok after they address the infinite shuttle problem and got rid of the Kazon and Kes and the Maquis/Starfleet rivalry and Chakotay and… (Oh wait, I guess that last one was just my own wish.)

Otherwise, I mostly agree. It is a little difficult coming up with a really good top ten given the constraints. Basically it is a “how do you rank Star Trek series” and then put in some others to make it ten. (Agree with those other fillers, and they should be mostly above most ST shows. And this coming from a Trekkie!)

I’ll hit the submit button now before my urge to point out typos gets the better of me…

Star Cops sounds like it’s worth checking out. As I was putting this together I was thinking that we were missing a show set primarily in the Solar System, which is going to be a very rich human space environment long before we ever go to other stars (assuming we go at all).

Firefly basically does that. It is not set in _this_ solar system, but it is confined to a hypothetical solar system that the US and China (i.e., the Alliance) colonized sometime in the future. We might have learned more if Fox hadn’t screwed it up.

Also, I haven’t watched Defying Gravity, but that seems like it might fit the bill as well.

Rajib, where are all the Chinese people??? I never saw any anywhere for the most part. And all those terraformed moons that were pretty much all Earthlike? With the silly short travel times? I could get detailed, but the system didn’t make much sense to me, even with massive terraforming capability not in evidence for the given tech-level shown.

Rana, Red Dwarf isn’t a show like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. It’s…weird. Cool, but weird. And funny. But not space action or drama. It can compete against Quark and win.

All fair points, to which we’ll never know the answers. (I have a hard time thinking that Whedon would have made a concerted effort making that alliance and having people speaking Chinese, and not have in mind that that is something that should be addressed.) I was merely pointing out that there was a series in your list that was confined to interplanetary, and not interstellar, travel.

And if we’re now starting to pick on the science of these shows, then let the games begin! [I have no problem with Firefly’s short travel times if the folks on Battlestar Galactica are allowed to survey an entire system for water in essentially zero time. Of course, they could have been using Star Trek tech where anything is possible. It’s just matter of finding the right crapyon particle.]

Given the number of these series that, “had a weak first season, but picked up in season X,” it’s all the more sad that Firefly got the can so early. I think Firefly had a better season one that every show listed there with the exception of the BSG reboot. Given the trends in Scifi sieries, imagine what season three of Firefly would have been like.

Defying Gravity was pitched as Grey’s Anatomy in space, and was more soap opera than science. But if you could look past the science errors (instantaneous communication over long distances, though impossible, is hard to avoid in a TV drama)
it wasn’t half bad.

As far as I’m concerned, no other sci-fi program has managed the feat of delivering consistently compelling arc story-writing, characterization, performance and whiz-bang as Farscape. Granted, its first 13 episodes leave alot to be desired, but if you get past them the show just takes off into the sublimely touching and absurd.

Star Trek: I just laugh at now; NuBSG was a navel-gazing bore after mid-season 2; Firefly: just a pale Farscape rip-off with a dissonant Confederate sensibility. The X-Files was fun until it devolved into fanfic.

B5 had a weak 1st season? OK there was a couple of dodgy episodes, but by and large it was great! I would have to put it right at the top (particularly if you look at the science, it had very few magic gizmo’s and they were all for Alien races (except for the techomages which were just a bad idea given the majority were human). All of the Earth tech was based on real science) along with BSG, that apart from a couple of gizmo’s went out of its way to stay true to science.

If you remove the Space bound restriction (yeah I know thats a huge part of this article) I would also like to recommend Total Recall 2070 (or to give it a more accurate title – Blade Runner the TV series) for its look at robotics, brain science and AI. Given its obvious links/homage to Philip K Dick I felt it gave an interesting take on his scientific views.

How can you put the original star trek series as #1, ahead of the remake of BSG? Its fine to pay homage to TOS, but to say it actually ranks as one of the best scifi tv series of all time is ridiculous. It deserves much credit for various reasons, but it has glaring defects and only children can watch it for more than a few hours. On the other hand, BSG can be watched from the pilot episode straight through to the final episode, back to back, with breaks only for sleep, bathroom and food. Im not bashing ST, as I love it also, but to put it as #1 simply because it was first, is childish.

I’m looking for a series I started watching a while back and got stuck waiting for more episodes. However, I cant remember the name. It was similar to Stargate series because they had an arc gate and ported some guy from his home because he figured out some Math problem implemented in a game. Once they got the gate working it teleported them to a very old space ship which continues to break down and be attacked by a race that wants to take it over.

No doubt. I believe we already have easy transport to space. Proven government secrecy with their hidden bases and all. Just cant wait til we’re introduced to space as a race. Would be awesome. Maybe ppl would stop fighting and unite to explore space.

help needed
i’m trying to remember a sci-fi series from my childhood and i don’t remember the name
i know for sure that the fighters that the people used were called hammer-head and they were fighting aliens, one of the episodes was called “who am i?”
and in that episode there was an alien ship that could have clocked (disappear) the soldiers called her “von Richthofen” and at the end the captain destroyed it

I’m trying to find the name of a TV Series in which about 10 travelers were stranded on a strange land. The planet, or place, was unique because its inhabitants were underground dwellers who could pop up out of a hole in the ground. Some of the scenes of the show were of the underground world they lived in. Any ideas?

You can grow gardenias from softwood cuttings in the spring.
It is apparently about half the price of similar quality oils.
Gets rid of skin flakiness and moisturizes extremely
well which is perfect for people living in dry weather conditions.

I watched lots of space stories, star trek, and earth 2, the one I am trying to find was before earth 2 where earth was dying of course. They were sending a scout ship full of kids with only one or two grown ups. The grown ups die off fast. And the kids are going to the new . Planet. They take turns doing cold freeze get into troubled. I thought it was called Earth. Ship one. But been in past. Some one help me it wasn’t on long. Thanks